Royal Sick Day
by Lunar Xerneas
Summary: King Dedede has fallen ill, and has to rest in bed for a few days. Who will be there to see that the king gets better? None other than the pink menace himself!


It was a beautiful spring morning in Dreamland. The sun had risen without a single cloud in its wake, bathing everything in its path with its sweet golden warmth. It seemed as if everything was perfect, not a flaw to be seen…

That is, until a complaining wail came from Castle Dedede.

" **Escargon**!" The wail belonged to none other than the self-proclaimed ruler himself, King Dedede. Though for some reason, his voice didn't have the usual angry tone, it almost sounded pitiful and nasal. Ten times more annoying than usual.

The mentioned snail had been woken up by the cry of the king, blinking open his eyes and sighing heavily. What did Dedede want so early in the morning?

He clomped down the hall to his highness's room, slowly opening the door.

"What is it, sire?" He asked, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he looked at the massive lump on the bed set in the center of the room. King Dedede still seemed to be asleep, as he was laying down, so Escargon had begun to wonder if he had been hearing things, before the penguin responded.

"What took you so long?" The king had sat up, way slower than he normally did, giving his assistant a grumpy and irritated look. "I've been sitting here for _ages_!"

"You only called for me once, sire. And besides, it's only been two minutes," Escargon muttered.

"Well it felt like way longer than that!" He grunted, coughing into his arm.

 _What a drama king._ Escargon thought to himself, rolling his eyes. But then he had noticed the rather miserable shape the king was in. His normally bright blue body was a bit dulled, his cheeks red with what he had assumed as a fever. "Sire, are you feeling okay?"

"What does it look like?" Dedede responded irritably, shivering a bit. "I want you to get more blankets, it's freezing in here."

Escargon rose an eyebrow. "Sire, it's actually rather warm in here, just how you wanted it last night."

"Well someone must've messed with the windows or somethin'! I feel like I'm in a winter wonderland!" He made a pitiful groan, wrapping his blankets around himself tightly and shuddering.

The snail frowned. "Sire, I believe you may be running a fever of some sort." He made his way over to Dedede's bedside. "Would you mind if I felt your forehead?"

"Don't you dare touch me, you little…" He gave Escargon a glare, but after a few moments of staring at each other, the king sighed in defeat and laid back down. "I don't feel good, Escargon." He mumbled grumpily.

"It doesn't look like it." Escargon felt the king's forehead for just a moment before frowning even deeper. "It feels like you have a fever. I can go get a thermometer to take your temperature."

"You'd better be snappy about it. And get me my blankets!" He ordered before coughing and groaning as the snail hastily left the room.

King Dedede could hear clattering and crashing coming from the bathroom, then Escargon came back, panting and holding a thermometer in one hand with blankets draped over his opposite arm.

"Why do you keep the thermometer in the most inconvenient place…" Escargon mumbled to himself as he came back to Dedede's bedside. "Okay, I want you to put this in your mouth." He told the penguin, helping him put the thermometer in his mouth. "Keep it under your tongue."

King Dedede made a few grumpy noises, looking away from Escargon as he draped the new blankets over him. After a few moments, the thermometer beeped.

"Okay, let's see… 102.7… that's not very good, sire." Escargon frowned. King Dedede's eyes turned to pea-sized circles.

"'Not very good?!' That's terrible, you nitwit!" He exclaimed. "How am I supposed to bark orders and do king stuff when I'm sicker than a puppy?"

"You might have to take a day or two off, sire. It happens sometimes."

"A day or two?! How am I supposed to rest for that long?! I need to order monsters to make Kirby's life miserable!"

"Sire, I don't think a day or two would make Kirby do anything to the castle-"

"What do you know? I'm sick of seeing that pink, smiling face all the time! I…" He groaned again. "Maybe I shouldn't yell… my head hurts now."

"That would be a good idea." Escargon sighed, rubbing his head a bit. "Look, Waddle Doo, the Waddle Dees and I can handle all of the business you have to attend to today. You should get some rest."

"But-"

"I mean it, sire. Do you want to be sick for longer than you have to be?"

"N-no, but I-"

"Then just lay down and get some rest."

"I ain't takin' orders from you!" Dedede bellowed, ready to smack Escargon, but couldn't because he couldn't raise his arm all the way. "...Ugh, fine! But if I see any trace of that pink menace, I swear…"

"D-don't worry, sire." Escargon stammered, grinning nervously. "No one will bother you while you're resting!"

* * *

Meanwhile, on a certain hill in a tree, Kirby was sleeping. However, a cool gust of wind ruffled the tree's branches, and the still-rising sun shone its light right in Kirby's eyes, making the pink puffball make a noise as he opened his eyes a bit.

When he realized that the day had come, Kirby opened his eyes all the way and sat up, yawning and stretching. Oh, what a beautiful day it was! It was much better than yesterday, where it had been rainy and cold all day long. Maybe Fumu and Bun could play today, or maybe Meta Knight would want to train!

Bubbling with excitement, Kirby bounced off the tree and pranced through the grass. It was still a little early to play with his friends, so Kirby had to find somewhere to spend some time before Fumu and Bun would wake up. Maybe Meta Knight was awake? He usually woke when the sun rose, or even earlier.

Kirby made his way down the hill and ran to the long dirt path leading to Castle Dedede, a smile plastered on his face as he wondered what Meta Knight would want to do, if anything, and what Fumu and Bun would want to do later on.

When he had made it to the entrance of the castle, Kirby noticed that the drawbridge was closed yet again, making him frown a bit. Then he smiled again when he remembered that Meta Knight was usually looking outside on one of the balconies, and he could just float up there to get inside the castle. With a deep breath, the pink puffball started to slowly float upwards, gently swimming across the air to look for the mysterious blue knight.

Kirby couldn't find Meta Knight on any balconies, so he assumed that the knight was inside the castle somewhere, so he floated inside a window, exhaled and landed softly on the brick flooring. He looked around curiously, seeing that the hall he was in was empty. Maybe Meta Knight was walking around…

After a while of walking and looking around, Kirby had finally found two people he recognized, Sword and Blade! "Poyo!" He grinned and ran over to the familiar faces.

"Hello, Kirby. What brings you here?" Blade asked.

"Poyo?" Kirby blinked, waving his arms a bit. "Mena poyo!"

"Are you looking for Sir Meta Knight?"

He nodded, smiling wider and jumping up and down a bit. "Poyo!"

Sword grunted, pointing in the opposite direction that they were facing. "He's scouting the halls down there. I recommend you keep quiet though, don't want King Dedede or Escargon to see you!"

Kirby smiled and skipped in the direction that Sword had pointed. While normally he didn't enjoy training that much, he really enjoyed spending time with his mentor. While hopping down the hall, he eventually found the masked knight walking towards a corner, his cape wrapped tightly around himself as per usual. "Mena poyo!" Kirby cried, running towards his mentor happily.

Meta Knight stopped and turned towards Kirby as he ran towards him. "Hello, Kirby."

He stopped in front of Meta Knight, smiling wide. "Poyo!" He waved his arms a bit, trying to imitate a sword.

"What is it? Do you want to train?" Meta Knight received a nod, and his eyes turned deep green for a moment. "I cannot today, Kirby. King Dedede is ill, and I must keep watch for him."

Kirby tilted his body in confusion. Sick? King Dedede? He hadn't ever seen the king sick before, and was a bit worried. "Sick… poyo?"

"Hm? You wonder if he's okay?" Meta Knight looked to the side for a moment, his eyes returning to normal. "I'm sure his majesty will be okay. Escargon told me it was the flu."

The flu? Kirby blinked, frowning a bit. It didn't sound good to him, and not many things sounded bad to him. "Poyo…?"

"Do you remember when you were sick?" Meta Knight asked. "Fumu had to take care of you."

Kirby grimaced; he remembered clearly when he was sick those couple months ago, he felt terrible during that time. Did Dedede feel the bad things he felt? He also remembered how Fumu took care of him, giving him soup and lots of blankets, putting cold cloths on his head to reduce the fever he had.

Maybe King Dedede needed those things, too! Despite the fact that the king wasn't the nicest person to Kirby, the pink puffball still wanted to help him feel better.

"Poyo!" Kirby smiled and suddenly dashed down the hall, leaving Meta Knight to wonder just what he was up to.

* * *

Kirby hummed, skipping over to King Dedede's room, seeing that the door was slightly cracked open. He peeked inside, seeing a massive lump covered by multiple blankets on the bed.

"Poyo…" He slowly went inside the room, looking around to make sure no one was around to throw him out the castle. He began to think about what Fumu had done for him when he was ill… She had put a cold, wet cloth on his forehead… maybe King Dedede needed that?

Dedede seemed to be asleep, so Kirby quickly and quietly walked into the bathroom located on the other side of the room to get what he needed. Looking up at the sink, he hopped up onto the counter with a cloth and turned the sink on. Soaking the cloth in icy cold water, he wrung it out to the best of his ability before messily folding it up, turning off the sink and hopping off the counter.

He walked back to Dedede's bedside, wondering how he was going to put the cloth onto the king without waking him up. Maybe him waking him up would be the better option? But then again, Dedede would most likely have him thrown out of the castle immediately… or maybe he'd be too weak to do anything...

Kirby decided to take that chance, gently hopping onto Dedede and gingerly setting the cold cloth onto his head.

When the penguin king felt something freezing cold being placed on his forehead, he felt all of his muscles tense up, a violent chill going down his spine. He opened his eyes, dazed, his vision filled with pink. What was going on?

As soon as his vision cleared up, his question was answered by an obnoxiously bright pink smiling face.

"Kirby?!" King Dedede felt his heart drop to his stomach as he quickly sat up, feeling the cold substance, a cloth, fall off his forehead and onto his lap on top of Kirby. "What is the meaning of this?! Get out of my room! Get out of my castle!" He would've scolded the pink puffball way louder if he could, or called for his waddle dees, but his voice was weak and raspy, so he couldn't. Oh, if he wasn't bedridden right now...

Kirby frowned, narrowing his eyes and trying to push Dedede back into a laying position. "Poyo! De-De poyo!"

"I'm not laying down, you pink pipsqueak! Not until you're out of my sight! And it's Dedede!"

Kirby puffed his cheeks in irritation, grabbing the damp cloth and attempting to put it on Dedede's forehead. "Poyo!"

The king blinked. What was Kirby doing? What was with the cloth? Why is that pink menace in his room?!

"Poyo… sick-poyo." Kirby frowned even deeper, which was weird for Dedede to see; that pink blob almost always had a smile plastered on his face.

"I'm not sick!" Dedede cried, trying to shoo Kirby off of him. "I'm just… tired! Yeah, just tired!"

Kirby gave him a look. "Poyo."

"Me? Lying?" He put a hand to his chest, trying to sound offended. "I would never-" He broke his cover by breaking into a violent fit of coughs.

Great.

"Poyo! Down." Kirby tried to push his chest to make him lay down again, but this time, the king begrudgingly gave in. The pink puffball nodded in approval, his usual smile back on his face.

"Okay, okay, I'm sick. What are you gonna do about it?" Dedede mumbled, giving Kirby a glare.

"Feel better poyo." Kirby cooed, grabbing the cloth and gently placing it back on the king's forehead.

Ah! So that's what the cloth was for, to help reduce his fever. While it did make sense, Dedede hated the fact that it was Kirby who, of all people, wanted to help him. "Okay, you gave me the cloth, now leave."

Kirby shook his head, smiling a bit wider. Dedede would probably love some soup! Where would he get it, though…?

He could go to Kawasaki's, but the amateur chef probably hadn't opened up yet… maybe he could make some himself?

"Hey, where are you going?" Dedede rose an eyebrow when Kirby suddenly giggled and left his room in a hurry. What was that pink menace up to?

Whatever, it didn't matter. King Dedede sighed heavily, groaning and closing his eyes. The cold cloth certainly made his face feel less hot, that was for sure, but it made the rest of his body feel like it was encased in ice.

He also began to wonder, why would Kirby help him? Given how cruel he was to the pink puffball, and how many demon beasts and monsters the king sent to harm or even kill him, one would think he hated him by now.

 _The kid has way too big of a heart_ , Dedede thought, grumpily shifting to get more comfortable. He was so tired… maybe Kirby would leave him alone, now. After a long while of sitting there and doing nothing, King Dedede began to drift off, eventually falling asleep.

* * *

Kirby hummed to himself, throwing some chopped carrots into the pot of bubbling soup. He tried to remember the stuff Fumu had put into the soup she had made for him that long while ago. Bits of chicken, carrots, noodles…

Kirby adjusted the cooking hat on his head, smiling a bit. He had inhaled a pan to obtain his cooking ability, which heightened his sense of good taste for food, and how to cook something that the king would hopefully enjoy.

While stirring the soup together, he sprinkled a tiny bit of salt into the pot to give the soup some flavor. He was lucky; the waddle dees were all still sleeping, so he had the castle kitchen all to himself. Hopefully, it would stay that way for a while longer.

When Kirby was finished making the soup, he tasted it using a spoon and smiled brightly at the taste. "Poyo!" He knew the king would love it! Well, at least he hoped he would. He hopped off the counter next to the stove, searching for a bowl and a ladle. He eventually found said items, scooping some soup into the bowl before grabbing another spoon.

Coughing up the pan that he used to obtain his copy ability, he set it in the sink before skipping out of the room, the bowl of soup in his paws.

"Who made this mess?!" The familiar voice of Escargon echoed from the kitchen as Kirby made his way down the hall. He had forgotten to clean up his mess. Oops.

* * *

King Dedede felt something prod his arm. He groaned weakly in annoyance, shifting a bit and shooing whatever was touching him away. "Leave me alone, Escargon…"

"Poyo! Kaabii!"

The all-too-familiar voice made Dedede's eyes shoot wide open. Sure enough, the pink ball of happiness was back. _Oh sweet Nova, have mercy on my soul...!_

"Poyo! Feel better!" Kirby cooed, poking Dedede again.

"I thought I told you to go away." Dedede would've normally yelled that statement, but he just didn't have the energy to do so. "Why can't you go terrorize someone else?"

"Poyo… sick."

"Yes, I'm sick." He growled in annoyance. "And you gave me a cloth to help. What else do you want from me?"

"Soup, poyo!"

"What."

"Soup!" Kirby held up a bowl of what looked to be soup in front of Dedede, that sugary sweet smile still plastered on his face. "For De-De poyo!"

The penguin king blinked. Soup? Had Kirby gotten this for him? Despite the generous gesture, he grimaced and glared at the pink puff.

"And how am I supposed to know if that stuff ain't poisoned?"

Kirby pouted. "Kaabii made soup poyo."

 _Kirby made it for me?_ Dedede seemed to be at a loss for words, which definitely was not normal for him. What was he supposed to do with it? Eat it? It smelled oddly good to the king, and despite being ill, the warmth of the food tempted him.

However, Dedede tried to deny the offer. He had an image to uphold! He was the king! Kirby was his enemy! So why was he sitting here and accepting the help from him?

 _Because you're sick and wouldn't be able to fight the treatment._

Dedede groaned in defeat, giving in and accepting the soup. "Fine. But this stuff better be good, or so help me…"

Kirby handed the bowl to Dedede as he sat up halfway. "Feel better, poyo!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The penguin king grabbed the spoon, and after a few moments of stirring the contents nervously, scooped some up and took a bite, half expecting it to taste like the armpits of Nightmare himself.

What he wasn't expecting, however, was that it actually tasted… _good_. It was warm and soothing, making his throat already feel a little better. And how had Kirby known that he loved carrots?

"Poyo~" Kirby smiled, noticing that King Dedede was actually enjoying the soup. "Soup good, poyo?"

As much as the king hated to admit it, he did. He nodded, continuing to eat. Who knew that the pipsqueak was good at cooking?

By the time Dedede had finished, Kirby was fast to cool the cloth that Dedede had on his lap back down. The pink puffball happily took the now empty bowl, helping King Dedede lay back down.

Kirby looked out the king's massive window; it was well past the early morning hours now, and he smiled brightly, knowing that Fumu and Bun would soon be wondering where he was.

King Dedede sighed, watching Kirby as he looked out the window. The overly kind treatment given to him made him feel… what was it he was feeling? He was feeling a bit better, but there was something else there.

"Your pals will be up soon, right, Kirby?"

Kirby looked over at Dedede, nodding. "Poyo!"

"Well…" Dedede felt his beak twitch into a small smile. "You'd better run along, or should I get the waddle dees to chase you out?"

Noticing the tone in the king's voice and the slight smile on his face, Kirby knew that he would do no such thing. He hopped a few times. "Poyo!" He was excited to play with his friends on this beautiful day. He was about to leave, but he stopped, looking over at Dedede once more. "...De-De feel better poyo?"

"Yeah. Now go before I get out of bed and chase you out myself!"

Kirby giggled, skipping out the door, giving Dedede a small smile before dashing down the hall.

King Dedede sighed heavily, laying his head back down. Despite still feeling rather crummy overall, Kirby's care had made him a little more at ease. He tried to figure out what he was feeling. Was it… grateful? Did he, King Dedede, feel grateful for the care of a mere child?

His thoughts were interrupted by Escargon angrily making his way towards him. "Sire, Kirby's been spotted in the castle! He messed the entire kitchen up! It's a disaster!"

Normally, Dedede would've gotten up immediately, readying a plan to get the happy-go-lucky pink blob to go away for good. But this time, he just didn't care. "Get the waddle dees to clean it up, then."

"But it was Kirby! Sire, I know you're not well, but shouldn't we do something about Kirby invading the castle?"

King Dedede sighed, looking out the window. He noticed just how beautiful it was, and seeing the look of joy in Kirby's eyes when he was going to see his friends to play… it made him want to pay Kirby back somehow. So, he looked back at the snail and said:

"Not today, Escargon."


End file.
